A Beginner’s Guide to Theatre

Editorial

There are many who dodge the lobbies of our nation's finest dramatic houses for fear they will be surrounded by absolute wankers. Well. This is a completely justified dread. There's nothing, sadly, we can do to clear the theatre of the thousands who cry, "I do abhor naturalism!" loudly while scoffing a bucket of half-time claret. But, approach the theatre as you might a major league footy game. You're there to watch the action; not mingle with the frantic horror of humanity.

Here's a secret: nearly everyone is confused by art and these loud dramatic barrackers often know as much about Henrik Ibsen as they do about quantum mechanics. So, if you feel a little out-of-place during performance or prelude, you're hardly on your own.

This is not, for a moment, to suggest that theatre is something into which one can simply sink without a little know-how. And there is nowhere to start but with Shakespeare.

Oh. Don't look at me like that. The work of the Bard is sustained for a reason. First, a good deal of it is enormous, bawdy fun. Importantly, actors and directors would be lost without the Alpha Dog to lead them through tomorrow's theatrical plains.

To nearly every Australian city, Will comes once a year. The Bell Shakespeare Company is known for its creditable renderings of the plays and tours widely. If you're in a bigger city and have a torrent and not a trickle of this visionary's work, I'd say, start with Macbeth. The Scottish Play is Shakespeare's most portable tragedy playing out at just over ninety minutes. Also, it has witches and murder and a mad chick with obsessive-compulsive disorder. There is much dispute about which of the fifty-something film versions of the work are best, but I say Roman Polanski's has it.

En route to a grasp of the basics, let Anton Chekhov also be your guide. Belvoir Street Theatre's 2011 production of The Seagull proves that even Russian doctors of the Nineteenth Century can crack a good gag.

Armed with a handful of those works broadly regarded as "the classics" (N.B. personally, I'd rather watch an entire uninterrupted series of Big Brother than ever sit through Sophocles again; but different strokes) you'll be able to lob silent volleys of disagreement at loud claret drinkers. Enjoy the work of Sarah Ruhl or David Mamet or Harold Pinter or Joanna Murray Smith more with just a little self-imposed education. And, when the rules, such as they are, of drama become apparent, then watch them shattered or tested in more "fringe" performances.

Of course, this is an entirely biased view of the theatre and there are those who would suggest that you simple dive in to Samuel Beckett. And this, of course, you may. The guidelines for partaking of drama should be as fluid as drama itself. Really, there are only two rules: Please wear something nice and don't rustle your crisp packet during a soliloquy.

Helen Razer, Citysearch

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